fatehbaz:

The “rarest wolf” in the Western Hemisphere. First clearly-documented instance of the US border wall preventing wolf travel. And Anubis, one of the first wolves in a century to inhabit the Grand Canyon region, is killed.

4 January 2022: Albinson Linares. “An endangered wolf spent days searching for a mate. The border wall blocked him.” CBS News. Originally published at Noticias Telemundo.

——-

7 January 2022: Lindsey Botts. “Anubis, the wandering Mexican gray wolf, is shot and killed near Flagstaff.” AZ Central. Originally published at Arizona Republic.

——-

The “rarest wolf” in the Western Hemisphere is the Mexican gray wolf, a unique subspecies which was nearly extinct after the US government purposely poisoned, trapped, and killed the subspecies between 1915 and 1972. By the 1970s, only some wolves remained in northern Mexico. In 1998, the wolf was reintroduced to the American Southwest. By 2021, there are about 114 wolves in New Mexico, 72 in Arizona, and 35 in Mexico. In 2020, US government agents killed the last of the Prieto pack in Gila National Forest. Average survival rate of wild pups is about 50%.

In December 2021, it was reported that the US’s border wall prevented Mr. Goodbar, a Mexican gray wolf, from crossing between habitat in the US and within Mexico, making this the first time that telemetry/tracking studies have clearly documented how the wall directly prevents wolf movement. Mr. Goobar spent 4 days pacing back and forth along 23 miles of the wall. As the Center for Biological Diversity pointed out in their December 2021 press release on the matter, there were two events in 2017 when wolves from Mexico crossed the border and traveled into the US. One of these wolves crossed into Arizona, and livestock industry advocates convinced the US government to capture the wolf; this wolf is still in captivity, and she was the mother of Mr. Goodbar.

Then, it was announced that Anubis, a locally famous Mexican gray wolf named, had been (”illegally”) shot and killed by an unknown person in Kaibab National Forest in northern Arizona in the first week of January 2022. Anubis had been famous for his long-distance travel from eastern New Mexico to the Kaibab area north of Flagstaff, which is outside of the “designated” wolf recovery zone. So, Anubis was also famous/important because he was one of the wolves in over a century to return to and live in habitat near the Grand Canyon, demonstrating that the area could still host wolves.

——-

From the Center for Biological Diversity, a map of Mr. Goodbar’s travels:

——-

Historical distribution range of the Mexican gray wolf.

Left: Distribution before 1915. Right: Distribution in the 1940s.

Left: Distribution in 1976. Right: Distribution in 2009.

The recovery area of Mexican gray wolf in New Mexico and Arizona:

@blackbackedjackal